The Abolition of Man

Contributor: Josh Bunnell

In a series of lectures in 1943, British author C.S. Lewis spoke against the rise of war and the collapse of human values.  It must be noted that he was not speaking, at least exclusively, of World War II and the Nazism that plagued Europe.  Rather, he was speaking of the decline of education, and in this Lewis spoke of everything about humanity, for people are defined by what they are taught.

Liberation Within Conservatism

Lewis’ lectures were published as a book in 1944, and this book, titled The Abolition of Man, is simultaneously enlightening and frightening, with the National Review ranking it as the seventh best nonfiction book of the twentieth century.  The Abolition of Man highlights the dangers of progressivism for the sake of progressivism, which continues until everything is meaningless.  It is still compelling because of its conservatism, which Lewis intricately analyzes and profoundly expresses.

The Danger of Debunking

The book is divided into three chapters. In the first, “Men Without Chests,” Lewis criticizes the attempts by modern philosophers to deviate from the Tao, the universally accepted set of rules which determine what is morally or aesthetically good or bad.  When objective sentiments are “debunked” into mere subjective opinions, there is no longer a need to appreciate truth, goodness, and beauty because, by the definition of debunking, there is no truth, goodness, or beauty to begin with. 

“The Way” is the title of the second chapter and refers to a new set of values, outside the Tao, which those who are privileged enough can condition others to accept.  Lewis uses highly impressive deductive reasoning to demonstrate that it is impossible to construct a new set of values outside the Tao unless values are completely eliminated altogether, which is discussed in the third chapter, “The Abolition of Man.”

Lewis again uses logic to prove that only one value outside the Tao is immune to debunking, and that is the subjective sentence, “I want.”  Since the Tao is comprised of selfless values such as posterity, goodwill, and sacrifice, the opposite is self-seeking: “I want X, I get X.” There is no option for Y.

Within or Without a Biblical Worldview

Readers in 1944 would have assumed that Lewis was referring specifically to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, who sought to condition the human species by means of manipulation and selective genocide.  However, the Nazis’ barbarism was only a symptom compared to the greater threat of mankind losing sight of what is good and decent.

Although his book is not explicitly Christian, Lewis, who converted to Christianity thirteen years before the publication of his book, most likely implied a biblical worldview when he referred to the Tao. The hidden message is that those who look for truth, goodness, and beauty apart from God and His Word will not find it.  They will only do what their animal-like instincts compel them to do.  “By the beginning of the 20th century,” writes Dr. Joseph Loconte, “it seemed that science had consigned the doctrine of the resurrection to the realm of wish fulfillment.” 

In the third chapter, Lewis argues that by conquering human nature by means outside of God’s ordained law, humans themselves are conquered by nature. The only way to conquer human nature is through self-sacrifice and servitude, thus embracing the most civil aspect of the Tao and emulating what Christ did on the cross for the sins of mankind. While Lewis does not thoroughly explain what it would be to conquer nature within the Tao, he endorses a “regenerate science” that “would not do even to minerals and vegetables what modern science threatens to do to man himself.  When it explained it would not explain away.  When it spoke of the parts it would remember the whole.”

It may be easier to ruin a sculpture or painting than to create a new one, but the latter is far more honorable and deepens one’s appreciation of God’s creation.  Lewis says it all in the final paragraph:

You cannot go on ‘seeing through’ things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. … If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.” - C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

For Further Reading on The Abolition of Man

The Abolition of Man Today by Adam C. Pelser

How C.S. Lewis Accepted Christianity by Joseph Loconte, Ph.D.